Which second fish for IM Nuvo 10g?

[JoJosReef]

First fish planned is going to be a tailspot blenny. Already have some barnacle shells ready to aquascape for him/her to hang out.

Tank will also have some red and green display macros, RFAs and inverts like sexy shrimp and a pom pom.

TBS rock and sand arriving on Thursday!

I am considering a second fish (planning stage, of course).

Options:
1. Mocha or snowflake clown (with BTA)
2. Purple or exquisite firefish
3. Green mandarin (with heavy feeding supplementation and training to take liquid egg/copepod foods... A real challenge, but I'm all in on this tank)

Opinions?

 

[Tamberav]

I would do the firefish of the three.

BTA's get large and will consume that tank in time.

Mandarins live 10-15 years and constant feeding/culturing pods really puts a damper on having a life.

 

[i cant think]

First fish planned is going to be a tailspot blenny. Already have some barnacle shells ready to aquascape for him/her to hang out.

Tank will also have some red and green display macros, RFAs and inverts like sexy shrimp and a pom pom.

TBS rock and sand arriving on Thursday!

I am considering a second fish (planning stage, of course).

Options:
1. Mocha or snowflake clown (with BTA)
2. Purple or exquisite firefish
3. Green mandarin (with heavy feeding supplementation and training to take liquid egg/copepod foods... A real challenge, but I'm all in on this tank)

Opinions?

I would do an exquisite fire fish personally because they’re nicer looking than the purple (Although both are nice I just prefer the exquisite/helfrichi).

 

[JumboShrimp]

Call me cRAzY, but every nano I’ve ever had has had a Yellow Tail Damsel. The most beautifully fish a $10 bill will get you. Lol! (Add it last.)

 

[JoJosReef]

I would do the firefish of the three.

BTA's get large and will consume that tank in time.

Mandarins live 10-15 years and constant feeding/culturing pods really puts a damper on having a life.

Two for fire fish so far!

RE: Mandarins, have you heard of people having success with foods like this instead of live pods:

Coral Feast Ova

New coral reef food blend. Highly nutritional blend of whole organism zooplankton eggs (ova) of various species. Hatching coral food.

www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com

ZU - FEAST Reef

Buy the best fish food and coral food Zu- Feast Reef. Get Plankton in a Bottle hatching liquid Coral food and Fish Food. Whole organism plankton harvested weekly at our marine saltwater zooplankton copepod farm in Florida.

www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com

Arctic Pod Feast

When you buy our Fresh Copepods you get the closest thing to live copepods. Get copepods for your fish food and corals.

www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com

Would make owning the mandarin more enjoyable, I imagine. I also imagine it's a coin toss or worse whether the mandarin takes to the food or not...

 

[JoJosReef]

@Tamberav @i cant think
In your experience, do the firefish get along with other tank inhabitants? I read everywhere that the tailspot is peaceful. Just don't want a tankmate that decides to pick on him/her.

 

[JoJosReef]

Call me cRAzY, but every nano I’ve ever had has had a Yellow Tail Damsel. The most beautifully fish a $10 bill will get you. Lol! (Add it last.)

Agreed! But I am getting my fish from Dr. Reef, so already paying the premium

 

[i cant think]

@Tamberav @i cant think
In your experience, do the firefish get along with other tank inhabitants? I read everywhere that the tailspot is peaceful. Just don't want a tankmate that decides to pick on him/her.

The fire fish are basically small tilefish but easier to keep IMO. They jump, the rat regularly and hate being picked on by larger fish. They don’t go after other fish as long as they’re left alone

 

[Tamberav]

@Tamberav @i cant think
In your experience, do the firefish get along with other tank inhabitants? I read everywhere that the tailspot is peaceful. Just don't want a tankmate that decides to pick on him/her.

tailspots can actually be feisty... more so than a firefish. I would not anticipate that you can't have both though.

 

[JoJosReef]

Sounds good! Getting a bit more convinced about the firefish. Will hold off on the mandarin until I move on to a large, mature tank full of pods.

 

[KeepSwimming12]

I’ve got a mandarin in a 15g and I always supplement copepods to that tank. Mine also eats lobster eggs which helps a lot. If you are willing to do that and make it a sort of monthly subscription like Netflix to your Mandarin then I think go for it but be aware that it’s of course a lot more expensive in smaller tanks. I’ve had a fire fish before and in my experience they can be very reclusive and a character fish such as a blenny may cause it to hide a lot. There are of course those with better experiences than me. I think a clown would be okay in the short term but I’ve seen some really big adults in the ocellaris and percula family and they’re sold as tiny babies so I’d keep that in mind if you don’t plan on getting a bigger tank. Good luck with whichever you go with!